Investors on the back foot

Property values fell again in June, the third month in a row they have declined 0.8%, CoreLogic’s latest House Price Index shows.

The quarterly fall of -2.3% is the biggest drop over a three month period since February 2009, which was just before the market bottomed out  following the Global Financial Crisis (GFC).

Given the hurdles to get funding such as 40% deposits, increasing interest rates and the cost of housing such as values, maintenance costs and reduced tax, many investors - or would-be investors - simply won’t be able to justify adding a property to their portfolio, says Nick Goodall, CoreLogic’s head of research.

Some investors may be comfortable topping up their property from other income for a period of time, but that has a limit, he says.